Archaeology

 To start with the baiscs, __Archaeology__ is the study of past civilizations and cultures through physical evidence that remains from their era. There are a number of different areas of archaeology, such as prehistoric archaeology and classical archaeology. Through artifacts, archaeologists can gather information even if no written records exist, making it an invaluable science.

 It's important to know just what an artifact is. According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, an __artifact__ is "something created by humans usually for a practical purpose." In the case of archaeology, they can be used to learn more about the people of a specific time period. An artifact does not necessarily have to be entirely man-made; it could be a natural-existing object such as a stone that was used as a tool. Art ifacts often ended up in the ground simply because they were discarded or lost by their owner. Archaeologists can learn a lot from artifacts, such as the social status of people who lived at a particular sight, or activities that may have taken place there. Still, there are many things that artifacts leave unclear or potentially even inaccurate.  At an excavation, archaeologists make careful records of the environment surrounding artifacts. This information about an artifact is called its __provenance__. An artifacts location and condition is important but perhaps most important is the context. __Context__ in archaeological terms refers to the layer of material that surrounds the artifact, as well as other artifacts in that layer. Context is crucial because it helps archaeologists gain a better understanding of how the artifact got to where it was discovered, and in the long run, reveals more about the people of its time period.

These layers of soil, also known as __strata__, build up on top of artifacts naturally through the process of decomposition and the depositing of eroded dirt. Archaeologists remove these layers one at a time, and can use them to estimate the age of discovered artifacts. This step-by-step removal process is called __stratigraphical excavation__.

When an artifact is removed from its true location without any documentation of context, not nearly as much can be learned about its time period. Thus, its archaeological value is significantly decreased, even if the item is reclaimed at a later time. The artifact cannot be connected with its surrounding artifacts to gain a better understanding of its background, and its age is much more difficult to determine. This is why any undocumented removal of an artifact from its origin is so devastating. -Ethan

Memory Matching Game: - Click on a word or definition card to reveal it. - Try to remember the location of everything you reveal. - Match the words with their definitions! (Sorry if it's a bit slow responding!)

media type="custom" key="3294442" Applet source code at http://aviettran.com/applets/AppletFiles/MatchingGame.java

Sources: 1. [] (Poole) 2. [] (Hirst)